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Consultancy is an art: in conversation with Reinier Koolmees

Sanne Maarsingh-Kelder

Sanne Maarsingh-Kelder

22-08-2023 - 8 minutes reading time

Reinier is team lead Data & Analytics at Online Dialogue. In the role of analyst and CRO specialist, he has been working for various clients and great projects since 2017. He takes everyone's views seriously, strives for open and honest communication and sees the invaluable value of working together. How has he experienced the past six years and what advice does he have for our readers?

CRO toolkit

In his role as product owner, he and colleagues Yuran, Marcel and Hans to a CRO toolkit worked that CRO specialists can use. The tools in this toolkit are public and available to everyone, one specific tool is accessible only to customers and that is the automatic sample size calculator linked to Google Analytics. This allows you to have the required impact and duration of experiments determined completely automatically.

“There is no other company in the world that has developed such an automatic calculator. Therefore, I am still very proud of what we have established as a team. We will continue to develop new things. This shows that we as Online Dialogue are a Thought Leader.”

Some highlights of 6 years of Online Dialogue

“I currently work for Stella, EasyToys and DPG titles such as Volkskrant, Trouw and Parool. They are three totally different customers with also three totally different conversion goals: more leads, more orders and more engagement. This sometimes requires a different view of “our clients” customers” and how services are offered to them. It is very instructive but also challenging because it also requires other kinds of (test) ideas and solutions."

That Friday is every OD'er's favorite workday is indisputable. In previous interviews you have read that the Friday afternoon ends with an inspiration session. Reinier says: “On this day I see all my colleagues again, wonderful. We end the week with the inspiration session, a beer and a bite to eat. Then we nerd out about statistics, reveal our biggest fuck-ups, present interesting cases or the psychologists explain to us how we are put together as human beings. Oh yes, ballroom dancing, yoga, cocktail making ... everything actually passed by at some point. It's too bad it only lasts an hour, because sometimes it's more interesting than going to the pub on a Friday night. Anyway, we work in the heart of Utrecht so it's regular that we go into town afterwards for an unforgettable night out.

Going Abroad

Above all, it is the incredibly beautiful trips abroad that he will never forget: Estonia, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Belgium, England and, of course, America. Visiting MIT and the CODE conference in Boston, and seeing the world's largest tech companies there discuss the field of experimentation, was absolutely “the icing on the cake”!

“One of the panel participants at the conference turned out to be a Dutch-American economist. At one point, I made a bold move, stepped up to him and shook his hand. We then chatted briefly about our backgrounds as Dutchmen. Two years later, in 2021, I was suddenly dumbfounded by real world news: Guido Imbens had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics. Wow, just WOW!!!!!!!”

If you want to watch the session with Guido Imbens during CODE you can do so here:

“A little closer to home, it's mostly the fun outings with OD'ers (Conversion Hotel, yeahhh!!!), the enormous fun we have together in the office, the knowledge and learnings we share among ourselves, and the challenging projects we do with our clients that make all the difference. “I have learned so much in a short period of time. It has not only enriched my life but also positively changed it.”

Making international awards and long-term impact

“The award nominations for my work as project lead at RTL Netherlands were also very special moments. We ended up being nominated by Experimentation Elite in the UK and the DDMA Awards in the Netherlands. Unfortunately no prize won with this project where we have experimented in Videoland's video streams. Nevertheless, we did receive a lot of appreciation for the work and that does make me immensely proud!”

In his work, Reinier not only goes for the best result, but also for long-term impact and change. “What people may not have realized enough is that with this case we not only contributed to the culture of experimentation within RTL, but at the same time with the learnings we set something in motion that can change the mindset of the organization over time. We actually went beyond where many other organizations were at that point in their experimentation maturity. It really was a unique project with a unique client. At a moment like that you really realize how much positive impact experimentation, and thus validation of ideas, can have on a company's business. It's a great moment to quote Stefan Thomke again: ‘Experimentation works!’. Be sure to read his book, if you don't already know it.”

Online Dialogue unfortunately just missed out on the prize with this case, but the team that Reinier was also part of, did win the Business & Industry Experimentation Campaign Award for our client Zolemba. A prestigious award with ditto title, of which we are extremely proud.

About the future

“At Online Dialogue, although I'm doing a lot with data, I am and will remain primarily a consultant to the client. I think I have grown a lot more in this role than I thought I would in advance, but I am learning from every day. I would like to delve more into Data Science and sincerely hope I don't have to end up as a prompt engineer for ChatGPT, haha! With today's developments, things can move very quickly, so you never know.”

As an experienced consultant, Reinier does have tips for the new batch. To people who aspire to his job or are thinking about entering the CRO field, he says: “It is important to gain experience anyway. Hard skills like being able to program a little and making data analyses are indispensable, but soft skills are just as important.”

reindeer great tit

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He himself learned most from situations where he faced resistance or setbacks. “Internal politics was always a factor as well. Situations that deviate from daily work, that's actually where you learn the most because that's where your personal growth is. That's why I'm a supporter of the idea of trying to fail more in the experiments we do. Of course, there has to be a trade-off somewhere between learning, earning and um... burning? With everything you do you always burn a little bit of money somewhere.”

In his career, Reinier has worked a lot with ICT people, market researchers, new business developers, designers, developers, marketers, communication consultants, managers and directors. Getting the right information and managing mutual relationships is sometimes quite a challenge. “All have different DNA. Being able to communicate at different levels is not always easy, but you get a long way when you first listen carefully and then respond.”

His advice: “Start small at the organization you work for and try to convince people there with (validated) insights from data and make small steps forward. Test the infinite scroll on Linkedin, try to read everything from interesting people in the field and listen to podcasts on repeat on topics like analytics, statistics, psychology, experimentation, CRO and the like. I have grown tremendously over the past few years and continue to do so. Both in analytics and CRO, but also in customer engagement. I would highly recommend the field.”

Tips:

> Fellow Naomi Smulders, Data Professional of the Year (MOA) and data scientist on Reinier's team was a guest on Women In Analytics: https://www.womeninanalytics.com/podcast-episodes/ep8
> Ruben de Boer at CRO Cafe: https://nl.cro.cafe/gast/ruben-de-boer
> CVO live podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMqEaPwxjg0

In conclusion
Want to know more about Reinier's work or the projects he has worked on? Feel free to send him a message on LinkedIn or contact us. By signing up for our quarterly newsletter stay up to date with our updates. We promise only interesting updates, no spam 😉 And of course we can also be followed on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Previous interviews from this series can be read here:

Sanne Maarsingh-Kelder

Sanne Maarsingh-Kelder

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